Jeff Campbell - Lonely Planet Florida

Capital city: Tallahassee

Population: 18.3 million

Distance from Key West to Cuba: 90 miles

Number of visitors to Walt Disney World annually: 47 million

Number of alligators in Florida: 1.25 million

Number of federally listed endangered species: 57

Number of islands (over 10 acres): 4500

Number of golf courses: 1250

Average winter temperature in South Florida: 68.5F

Highest elevation: 345ft

Miles of beaches: 663

Number of hotel rooms: 370,000

Florida makes its living from tourism, so its always eager and ready to welcome you. Getting here, renting a car, finding a hotel, a meal, a drink, the beach Florida makes these details easy, and relatively affordable, so that you can focus solely on having a great time, which ideally inspires you to return again and again.

So far, anyway, that formula has worked pretty well. And it means that you, the visitor, need only decide what you want to do and when you want to do it. The only hitch is that Florida, being so attractive and welcoming and popular, can also get insanely crowded. Advance planning is essential, because like the Magic Kingdom, Florida is all about crowd management: savvy travelers know the best rides fill up fast, and beating those inevitable, growing, snaking lines sometimes requires perfect timing.

Unfortunately (or not), Florida has no single perfect season. The best time to go depends entirely on your agenda.

Always consider the weather first. Similar to the tropics, Florida has essentially two seasons: wet and dry. Winter, Floridas dry season, is from roughly November through April. Temperatures are lower, theres less humidity and rain, and its the ideal time to hike, canoe and explore nature, particularly in South Florida. Snowbirds (northerners who winter in Florida) love winter because sunny 70F days mean no snow, ever.

Summer is the wet season: from May to October, its hot, sticky and rainstorms deluge many an afternoon. This is also roughly hurricane season, which peaks in September (for more on hurricanes, ).

All this would seem to make winter the best time to come, and it often is; particularly in Miami and South Florida, winter is high season, bringing with it higher prices and more crowds. But in northern Florida, the ocean is a little too cold for swimming in winter, so the Panhandle, St Augustine and others boom in summer.

Orlandos high season is year-round. Here, theme-park lines respond more to school vacations and holidays than to weather. Also, those who brave summers heat and mosquitoes often find that its dreaded rains can blow through quickly; duck inside for an hour, and its over before you know it.

Finally, wildlife keeps its own schedule: migrating birds, manatees, sea turtles, whales all come at different times, so if youre set on seeing a particular animal, find out when its visiting ( for more on parks and wildlife).

The rich and famous adore Florida, but you dont need be either to enjoy its sunny climes. In this guide, we emphasize the middle ground, while providing plenty of choices for travelers to splash out or conserve their pennies as they like.

How low can you go? If youre camping and making most of your own meals, you could spend under $50 a day. If youre two people staying in budget motels and eating out (even cheaply), budget $100 a day per person. Whether you rent a car is the real wild card; without one, your expenses plummet; with one, thats a base of at least $40 to $50 a day (depending on insurance and gas). However, unless youre staying in one spot, youll probably want a car, as public-transportation networks do not stretch to all locations in Florida.

For comfortable midrange travel, budget $150 to $200 per person a day. Comfort is relative, but with this budget, expect to mix up a nicer B&B with a budget hotel and to balance days at expensive destinations (Miami and Orlando theme parks) with days at free ones (the beach and state parks). Going in a destinations high season also significantly affects your costs, particularly in beach-resort towns like Sanibel and Amelia Islands. And of course, if you spend all your time in Miamis art-deco hotels and nightclubs, or bounce from theme park to theme park, the sky is very nearly the limit.

One thing in the travelers favor is the intense competition for business in Florida, which generally keeps prices lower, and which inspires a blizzard of promotions, deals and discounts. If you plan ahead, check the web, call and ask, and are a little flexible, youll find numerous opportunities to trim your costs here and there.